How are we going to get out of this? We have an army of undead all around and god knows where we are! I know that there is little to no chance of us surviving, even if we make it through this challenge, there will just be another waiting for us. And while the enemy grows with each fallen survivor our numbers only grow smaller, and our resources dwindle more and more. What’s the point in fighting, if there’s no hope of victory?

Pages

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Haven Chapter 20

Chapter 20

I don’t know what I was expecting, an old man I guess,
aged and experienced, someone like Greg. Instead what I saw was a woman, barely
older than me, and younger even than Brooke, physically she was comparable to
Lauren, thin and tanned, most definitely not what I expected. Her expression
however gave an impression of experience and knowledge, as well as distrust and
confidence. I hadn’t planned much for the negotiations, but judging on her look
I doubt I would have a large amount control over the way they go.

I gathered myself and snapped my jaw closed, I walked
towards her as passively and friendly as I could manage and smiled, “hi, my
name’s Todd it’s nice to meet you”

She raised one eyebrow in response, and turned looked
back to her entourage appearing around the corner before responding, “Jacobs.”
She only gave me her last name, but whether that was because she preferred it,
or she wanted to keep things formal I didn’t know. But I guessed the later. As
the truck pulled up she spoke again but not to me, “Greg what’s going on here?”

“I caught him trying to radio his group,” Greg paused
and turned to Lindsey, “with her
permission”

“Lindsey,” the first sign of emotion I heard in
Jacobs’ voice was disappointment

“Their people deserve to know they’re alive,” Lindsey
argued desperately, before becoming more serious, “you know what that’s like.”
There was a pause before Jacobs spoke again, this time with a kind yet firm
tone “I do, but you have to decide whose feelings come first, their group’s, or
ours”

“It better not,” Jacobs replied, also become stern, I
could see where Lindsey learnt it from.

“Now what are we going to do about you?” finally the
resistance leader made eye contact with me, and I felt more nervous than I ever
have. I didn’t know if I could stand up to her if I needed to, and I knew if I
let her she could take everything we have worked for. “I heard everything he
said ma’am,” Greg said, still pointed a gun to my head, “he didn’t say who we
are or where we were”

“Good,” she replied, and I breathed a sigh of relief,
“that means we don’t have to kill you and leave your bodies here as examples” a
part of me didn’t know whether she was kidding or not

“So what do we do now?” I asked passively, letting her
take control, for now

“We won’t talk her, not with so many people,” she
thought for a moment, “I’ll talk with you alone”

“No,” both I and Brooke replied at the same time, she
nodded at me and I continued, “How can I be sure you’re not going to torture me
for information, or kill the others while I’m negotiating.” She raised her
eyebrow again, I hope it was because I’d impressed her and not because she was
amused. “Very well, we’ll be fair, you, me, and two people each, the rest stay
out here,” she walked off to confer with the others, and finally Greg lowered
his weapon and followed her.

The others had gathered around me, but we had to
whisper not to be heard as Lindsey and Pete were still watching over us, fingers
on triggers. “I should go with you,” Connor said immediately after walking
over, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t trust Connor completely at first, but after
everything that has happened I think I did, but I wasn’t sure whether he was
the best person to bring into the negotiations, he was an intimidating guy, but
that might be to advantage. Or to our disadvantage. I decided to leave that to
the side for now, I had already decided on one person to bring, “Brooke?”

“I’m in,” she replied immediately, I’d come to rely on
Brooke a lot these past weeks. I looked around the circle, and once again
wished I’d brought Jade with me, but I hadn’t. Monica was solid, and stoic, but
we needed to appear kind and friendly here, so she wouldn’t be best. Malcolm I
still didn’t know too well, he was an introvert I guess. Which meant I only had
one real option, no matter what my doubts were. “Connor you too,” I said,
trying not to sound reluctant

“I know we’ve clashed in the past but I know I can
help Todd,” he assured me, and I tried to listen.

I turned around and saw Jacobs walking towards me, she
had chosen Greg and a man covered in defensive gear, along with a helmet with
the visor closed and enhanced with metal bars. “What about your weapons?” I
asked, each man had a rifle, and Jacobs had her hand gun unclipped in its
holster

“You’re gonna have to convince me to trust you a bit
more first sorry,” she said smugly, and I had no choice but to agree, and the
six of us walked into the station.

…

It had been a good half
hour of us negotiating inside, and things outside had gone from tense to
boring. Lindsey was trying to get Monica to talk about apocalypse fashion, and
failing. Pete and the rest of the resistance members were sorting out their
various loot. This left Malcolm to sit and nap, his back against the van. At
least he was trying to nap, it was starting to get warm now and he didn’t care
that much for summer, and the cool bumpy metal of the van did little for his
comfort. Not to mention the fact that every so often the resistance members
would burst out in laughter, and several times he caught Pete point towards him
or Monica before they starting laughing again.

But just as he finally
was started to forget the stress of the situation he heard someone sneeze,
loudly. He started awake, and glanced around, but no one was actually close enough
to make that noise, nor was anyone acting like they heard it too. There was a
second, quieter sneeze, and that was when Malcolm realised it had come from the
van. He glanced inside but there was no one there, trying to act inconspicuous
he glanced under the van but he couldn’t see anyone’s feet, he realised there
was only one place it could’ve come from: the boot. It had been locked by a
padlock and we hadn’t found a key, nor had we found it worth breaking off. But
when Malcolm, carefully choosing a time when no one was looking, looked there was
no padlock there. He knew who was inside, but still he opened it, and found
Emma lying inside.

…

“So that’s how you
survived?” Jacobs asked, her feet up on the desk between us

“That’s what I said,” I
replied, starting to get more hostile, she had spent the first half hour of the
negotiations quizzing us about our encounters so far, the marauders, how we all
met, how we lost Caleb. It was starting to grate on me, and not once did she
show any emotion or sympathy. “No doubt you’ve had a similar experience,”
Brooke said coolly, and I thanked her for it silently

“More or less,” Jacobs
answered still calm, “there was a group who tried to ambush a large raiding
party a few months back, we lost a few people”

“I’m sorry to hear
that,” I tried to sound sympathetic. There was a few moments silence, this was
when the real negotiating would start.

“So its obvious how
joining us would benefit you,” so started smugly, “we have more numbers and a
more defensible base”

“You don’t know that,”
I disagreed, although I agreed with her, “our base might be stronger than
yours, and numbers aren’t necessarily advantages”

“True,” she conceded, “but
I can assure the majority of our resistance has raiding and fighting
experience, we aren’t a herd of sheep to be slaughtered” it was odd to hear my
own words spoken to me “and if your base really is stronger than you can bring
those skills back with you.” I smiled, she was starting to think about letting
us join her, or so I thought. “But what if it isn’t?” she turned the tables on
me, “what if you arrive to find something far greater than your home, and what
if your group is far less experienced than you pretend”

“What are you asking?”
I wanted to try and stop her flow

“If your people join us
what can you give us that you can promise will be a boon, and not a curse,” she
was getting more aggressive as she spoke.

I was silent for a
while, I turned to Brooke, then to Connor, we all knew what we had, but it was
a risk letting them know we have it. I had to make this count, it was the
biggest bargaining chip we had. “We have something, something you want,” I placed
my hands folded on the table, “even if you already have one you’d still want
another, but before I tell you I need to trust you”

“What do you want?”
Greg asked but he knew

“Drop your weapons,”
Connor answered, then nodded at the helmeted man, “and take off your helmet.”
Jacobs was quiet for a while, considering our request, for a long while she
stared into my eyes, and I stared resolutely back. “Ok,” was all she said, and
she opened a desk drawer and dropped her handgun inside, Greg did the same, and
taking the other man’s rifle he placed them both between our two groups. The
other man unfastened the clip and began to remove his helmet. I breathed I sigh
of relief, this was all going to turn out ok, “we have a portable generator,” I
said proudly, and Jacobs and Greg looked pleased. But we weren’t we were
mortified, as the third man turned around and we recognised him: Anthony, the
leader and all that remained of the marauders.